My 7 mo has a horrible red sore area where his penis presses against his scrotum under the diaper... it even is cracked and bleeds. he's currently going without a dipe, but DH insists this is because I don't bathe him enough... he doesn't get bathed every day, more like every third day. Now I feel negligent, I just always felt that it was healthier if their skin retained some of the natural oils..

Also, would you guys put Balmex or Aquaphor on the red cracked area (where the penis and scrotum join) for when I put him back in the diaper? or leave it alone?

before my son was eating many solids we bathed him when we had the energy or when he was visibly a little dirty or smelly. i'm certain we sometimes went 2 weeks without bathing him and no one could tell. we did clean him up with a wash cloth daily though. now he is eating dinner every night and he tends to get messy so he gets a bath almost every night

the i don't know what to put on a rash like that. my son has gotten very mild rashes in the same area. but it never got very bad. we do lots of diaper free time, i think that's the best thing for it but i bet others have better info on rashes than i do. if your dh thinks your son needs more baths maybe he should give him baths then?

Rest assured, we have the same problem today actually and we bathe everyday without fail...even if it's 11pm. I will tell you that if you dilute about 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract in 2 oz of water and use a q-tip and apply or a spray bottle, it helps to take it away..for us anyway..within a day or so! We cloth diaper too and still have problems. Not always. It's usually when a tooth is on it's way or something like that...But we have it nonetheless! We break from the diapers too and this evening had pee sprayed all over and nice little turds on the carpet...We could let the dog in for that!!! Ha! J/K Good luck! I can totally sympathize!

Put breastmilk on it at every change. When it heals keep it dry with cornstarch.
My DD had a sore on her butt that wouldnt heal no matter what, until i put breast milk on it. Then it healed in like 3 days.

We don't have a formal bath schedule. We've always bathed our babies when they seemed to need it... it usually works out to about once a week I guess. Most of the time a wipe with a wet, or wet and soapy, washcloth, is sufficient.

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My daughter has lots of curly hair and has since she was born. She gets a bath about every other day, right now, because she puts her sticky food fingers in her hair (mmm, banana!) and it's the easiest way to get it all out.

i;m not at all questioning diaper-changing prowess...and i haven't read ALL the posts...but we cloth diaper and i found that if i'm lax on changing the dipe (forgive me, i get busy) he gets a small rash in the same exact place. i've found that to be the biggest drawback to cloth so far.

but keeping up with diaper changes and diaper free-time do wonders for his skin.

(which just generally gets dry in the diaper area at times).

good luck!

(and if your husband thinks you don't bathe baby enough, why doesn't he jump in when he feels its necessary?)

oh yeah, and we bathe our baby about 2-3 per week and a wipe down everyday...he spits up A LOT!

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I bathe every day at 4 mo, but as a night time wind down ritual. I'm not sure if bathing has anything to do with the sore, but it couldn't hurt to try doing it daily for a week or so to see if there's any change. Also, if you're bathing dry the areas thoroughly, and maybe call the ped to find out if there are any drying powders you can use. I use a powder on my baby's neck, otherwise he would continue to get bleeding sores. You're not negligent to bathe your baby every 3 days, it sounds pretty normal.

We don't have a formal bath schedule. We've always bathed our babies when they seemed to need it... it usually works out to about once a week I guess. Most of the time a wipe with a wet, or wet and soapy, washcloth, is sufficient.

:

And we use coconut oil on the red spots when they pop up. I don't know if it works, but they only last a couple of days, usually.

I bathe mine twice a week and she was getting those same sores around her neck area and in her elbow creases. What I do now, and this has completely cured it, is I just take a damp cloth and wipe around in those areas once a day and make sure they are cleaned out. Sometimes I take a little Burt's Bees apricot oil and dab it on in those areas to keep it from chafing. It seems to do the trick!

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We mostly spot cleaned our baby. I mean, he got a bath now and again, but mostly, we'd just run a washcloth or a spare wipe over any obviously dirty spots and out he'd go, looking bandbox fresh. Babies are like that. So I don't think your son's rash is the result of insufficient bathing, because if it were, my kid would have had the same, only much much worse.

Now that he's learned to walk, and it's summer and hot, he seems to land in the bathtub 2-3 times a week, but that's a new thing for us.

When my baby was a newborn I only bathed her about once a week. When she hit about 3 months, I started doing it maybe every 3rd or 4th day. But now that she is crawling about on the floor all day, I bathe her every day just to get the dust and dog hair off! I do not always use soap, though. Sometimes just a rinse.

I don't know about the rash, but I use Weleda diaper ointment for all my baby rashes. (I CD, too.) Have you checked into the possibility of it being yeast? You might want to check with your Dr. Both my DS and my DD have gotten yeast diaper rashes. Some lotrimin cream (over the counter) will clear it up. You could probably google for more specific instructions on that.

At that age I give em a bath every other day. As for the rash, I would try to locate a salve that has comfrey in it (I make my own). You could even use fresh or dried comfrey, make an infusion and make a little poultice (use something small like a baby washcloth?)

we bathe our ds about once every 2 weeks...he gets a morning face/hands/peri area/feet wipe with a warm damp cloth, but that's it for daily cleaning. we go diaper free a lot during the day...at least one or two naps/day are diaperless. and we use cloth diapers and disposables, depending on who's doing the changes (me or dh). no rashes anywhere, and we wipe and then use vaseline or a similar type ointment at every change, wet or poopy.

saw this on the new posts and just wanted to say that if the rash has anything to do with bathing (which it likely doesn't) it would be more likely that bathing him too often or with soaps would cause the problem, not not bathing him often enough or only doing a rinse. soaps can obviously cause irritation and frequent bathing can be an issue if baby isn't totally dry before the diaper goes on. baby can get moist dermatitis for one, you can destroy all the natural (good) bacteria that grow on the skin, and you can weaken the skin by stripping it of it's natural oils.

once every 1-2 weeks with wipe downs as necessary in between would seem sufficient to me for a baby that age. i wouldn't use soap every bath either, maybe every other one.

in any case, if your DH thinks lack of bathing is the problem, why doesn't he just bathe babe himself?

It is so dry where we live, I only bathe my LO once a week, sometimes once every two weeks with sponge baths in the middle. We use very little soap, too.
As for the sore, it needs to air out and be dry before you put any ointment on it. I like Weleda Diaper Care. But if you put it on damp skin, it retains the moisture and makes the rash worse. Just let it air. Don't put any powders on it, it could make it worse.
Good luck!